Singapore Emcee Donna Daniels | Top Professional Female Event Host

Professional Emcee – Energy Maintenance

As a professional emcee who has to host events for long hours, it’s very important that I remain in peak condition.

I consider myself like a sports athlete e.g. a professional footballer. When they come onto the field for a match, they have to bring their ‘A game’ otherwise they won’t make the grade. They train long & hard to get on the team, & when the match is on they give it their all.

The same is true as professional emcee. We have to train ourselves to sustain for long hours, constantly exerting maximum energy, because the audience expects high energy, interaction & fun. They have no idea how difficult the show hosts task is, and this is as it should be. A professional emcee always makes their job look easy, as does a professional in any field.

If you let the audience see you’re exhausted or that things look tough – they don’t care. It’s not their problem. In their eyes, you’re being paid, so you have to deliver.

That’s why, as a professional mc, I’m quite fanatical about diet and exercise.

I’m a vegetarian, not just for health reasons, but because I really don’t like eating animals.

I stick to a high protein, low carbohydrate diet, which, as a vegetarian consists of a lot of legumes & nuts. However, I do allow myself the luxury of a glass of red wine & some delicious dark chocolate when I feel like it.

Event Emcee Fuel – Water

I drink tons of distilled water & never drink sugar drinks or anything with ice. Ice freezes my vocal folds & when you’re using your voice as much as we have to as dinner and dance emcees, you can easily damage it when it is not properly warmed up. The voice is just like any other muscle and must be kept warm. You never see athletes doing ‘ice-ups’ before a game – they do ‘warm-ups’. So should we.

I also like to get plenty of rest and try to sleep at least 7 hours a day.

I never take any forms of medication unless it’s an absolute last resort, as medicine just masks the symptoms that my body is telling me to take notice of.

I do yoga and stretches and try to walk & jog on a daily basis. I also like to use a ‘kettle bell’ to strengthen my muscles, not to build muscle mass. That’s why the kettle bell size I use is an 8kg bell. I will do kettle bell workouts about 2 or 3 times a week.

If my voice is stressed because of over-use, I will not talk for the day. If I do have to speak it will be in a whisper.

Also as a female professional host, I usually do a few costume changes through the night. Most of the time I wear my ‘killer shoes’ and I mean this literally. By the end of the night, my feet are ‘killing’ me. When I’m finally finished and reach home and relax, I try to do exercises to get the blood flowing back to my feet. I usually circle them clockwise and anti-clockwise and whenever possible, I put my feet up, so that there’s no weight on them and the blood can flow easily.

Professional Show Host Must Indulgence

Last but certainly not least, I always love to go for a full body oil massage, especially when I have a few shows back to back.

The massage is important, not just because it feels great, and de-stresses me, but it also helps keep the blood circulating throughout my whole body.

When you’re a professional emcee, the client has booked you for that day. If you’re not well, or sick, in this profession you can’t take a ‘sick’ day and tell them you’re not well. The whole event is depending on you.

That’s the reasons why I go out of my way to maintain my health. With proper maintenance my body serves me well when I need it. If I treat my body right, it also does the right thing by me.